A Summer for War

France, summer 1917. After the Canadian victory at Vimy Ridge, Lieutenant Malcolm MacPhail is serving on divisional staff near Lens, where the Arras fighting has settled into another exhausting contest of artillery, trenches and limited advances. Headquarters politics are almost as dangerous to his career as the front line, especially after he antagonises a brigadier and becomes aware of suspicious activity behind the lines.

The Canadian Corps is then ordered to seize the high ground around Hill 70 as a diversion before the larger offensive in Flanders. Malcolm’s staff responsibilities place him between planning and battlefield reality, where personal rivalries, intelligence failures and the cost of attacking fortified positions converge during the struggle for Lens.